An analysis of eight microsatellite loci in 90 individuals
was performed to deﬁne the genetic structure and variability of three estuarine
populations of Coilia mystus: 30
individuals each collected from
ChangJiang River (Yangtze River) estuary-CJ, MinJiang River estuary-MJ, and
ZhuJiang River (Pearl River) estuary-ZJ. The
results showed polymorphic information contents (PIC) of 0.78, 0.77, and 0.64
in CJ, MJ, and ZJ, respectively. The mean observed number of
alleles (Na) ranged from 7.38
to 11.88. The mean observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.09 to
0.21 and from 0.68 to 0.81, respectively. The ZJ population was least
polymorphic. Highly significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium,
mostly due to deficits of heterozygote, were found in these three populations. Pairwise
FST and Reynolds’ distance
indicated that the three estuarine populations were genetically distinct, in
accordance with the principal component analysis (PCA) and the Bayesian
model-based clustering algorithm analysis. The results showed that pairwise
genetic differentiation among these three estuarine populations were relatively
high, with possible divergence to subspecies level. This study provides
microsatellite DNA evidence for assessing the genetic distinctness of C. mystus populations and will benefit
fishery resource management and sustainable utilization of C. mystus.